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Powered by 4 - August 20, 2015

David's family situation is a mess. Amnon has raped his half sister Tamar, Absalom (Tamar's brother and Amnon's half brother) now hates Amnon and is set on getting revenge for Tamar, and David who is "angry" about Amnon's actions does nothing to address or make right what has taken place and completely disrupted his family. It's not a pretty scene to begin with, and it only gets worse as time goes on.

Once again, there are numerous lessons for us from this passage--parenting, anger, revenge, relationships. The main thing that stood out to from this story was David's lack of action once he learns that Amnon has raped Tamar. Rather than stepping up and dealing with a messy, difficult situation between his children, he chose to ignore it, probably hoping that time would take care of the problem. However, the exact opposite happens. The unresolved situation only serves to grow and fester Absalom's hatred, and ultimately leads him down the path to murder.

Based on this passage and your own experiences, how important is it to address conflict within your family before it escalates? What about in situations at work or at church? Tami

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